Rootabaga Pigeons

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Rootabaga Pigeons (1923)
by Carl Sandburg

Section 1

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3021823Rootabaga Pigeons1923Carl Sandburg

Rag Bag Mammy brings out candy with red and white stripes wrapped around it

ROOTABAGA
PIGEONS

BY

CARL SANDBURG

Author of "Rootabaga Stories" "Slabs of the Sunburnt West,"
"Smoke and Steel," "Chicago Poems," "Cornhuskers"

ILLUSTRATIONS AND DECORATIONS
BY
MAUD AND MISKA PETERSHAM

Harcourt, Brace and company logo

NEW YORK
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC.

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. BY
THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY
RAHWAY. N. J

In compliance with current
copyright law, LBS Archival
Products produced this
replacement volume on paper
that meets the ANSI Standard
Z39.48-1984 to replace the
irreparably deteriorated
original.

1992

To Three Illinois Pigeons

CONTENTS

1.

Two Stories Told by the Potato Face Blind Man

The Skyscraper to the Moon and How the Green Rat with the Rheumatism Ran a Thousand Miles Twice3

Slipfoot and How He Nearly Always Never Gets What He Goes After9

2.

Two Stories About Bugs and Eggs

Many, Many Weddings in One Corner House19

Shush Shush, the Big Buff Banty Hen Who Laid an Egg in the Postmaster's Hat27

3.

Five Stories About Hatrack the Horse, Six Pigeons, Three Wild Babylonian Baboons, Six Umbrellas, Bozo the Button Buster

How Ragbag Mammy Kept Her Secret While the Wind Blew Away the Village of Hat Pins33

How Six Pigeons Came Back to Hatrack the Horse After Many Accidents and Six Telegrams41

How the Three Wild Babylonian Baboons Went Away in the Rain Eating Bread and Butter49

How Six Umbrellas Took Off Their Straw Hats to Show Respect to the One Big Umbrella55

How Bozo the Button Buster Busted All His Buttons When a Mouse Came63

4.

Two Stories About Four Boys Who Had Different Dreams

How Googler and Gaggler, the Two Christmas Babies, Came Home with Monkey Wrenches75

How Johnny the Wham Sleeps in Money All the Time and Joe the Wimp Shines and Sees Things87

5.

Two Stories Told by the Potato Face Blind Man About Two Girls with Red Hearts

How Deep Red Roses Goes Back and Forth Between the Clock and the Looking Glass97

How Pink Peony Sent Spuds, the Ballplayer, Up to Pick Four Moons105

6.

Three Stories About Moonlight, Pigeons, Bees, Egypt, Jesse James, Spanish Onions, the Queen of the Cracked Heads, the King of the Paper Sacks

How Dippy the Wisp and Slip Me Liz Came in the Moonshine Where the Potato Face Blind Man Sat with His Accordion115

How Hot Balloons and His Pigeon Daughters Crossed Over into the Rootabaga Country127

How Two Sweetheart Dippies Sat in the Moonlight on a Lumber Yard Fence and Heard About the Sooners and the Boomers139

7.

Two Stories Out of the Tall Grass

The Haystack Cricket and How Things Are Different Up in the Moon Towns153

Why the Big Ball Game Between Hot Grounders and the Grand Standers Was a Hot Game161

8.

Two Stories Out of Oklahoma and Nebraska

The Huckabuck Family and How They Raised Pop Corn in Nebraska and Quit and Came Back169

Yang Yang and Hoo Hoo, or the Song of the Left Foot of the Shadow of the Goose181

9.

One Story About Big People Now and Little People Long Ago

How a Skyscraper and a Railroad Train Got Picked Up and Carried Away from Pig's Eye Valley Far in the Pickax Mountains191

10.

Three Stories About the Letter X and How It Got into the Alphabet

Pig Wisps201

Kiss Me207

Blue Silver215

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS

Rag Bag Mammy brings out candy with red and white stripes wrapped around it
Frontispiece (in color)
Page
On the last step of the stairway my foot slips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		11
The Hot Cookie Pan came with a pan of hot cookies and the Coal Bucket with coal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		21
The mouse bit the knot and cut it loose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		67
They went to sleep on top of the wagon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		81
She was sitting on a ladder feeding baby clocks to the baby alligators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		119
One of the pigeons rang the bell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		129
She carried the squash into the kitchen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		171
Out into the snowstorm Flax Eyes rode that day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		209

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1976, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 47 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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